


drag me underwater and don't let me drown

by callingCujo



Category: Subnautica (Video Game), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Ocean, Underwater, i want to HEAVILY stress that there are only 4 tagged characters who are alive, just tagging those in case we have phobias of the ocean and dont know what subnautica is, katai and fitzgerald WILL NOT APPEAR until the later chapters but i don't want to like forget, oda isnt in this fic but hes still dead, the rest of them do die before the events of the story, they are akuatsu / fitzgerald / katai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2020-05-28 06:30:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19388425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callingCujo/pseuds/callingCujo
Summary: Everything about Atsushi's current situation is a living nightmare. He's stranded on an alien planet covered entirely by ocean, and he's just had to hear the final words of half of his friends. All in all, it really hasn't been the best day for him.Enter one sour-faced expeditionist to make things so much worse.(previously titled "all's fair in love and pointless bickering"!)





	1. loneliness is bad for the soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey!! so i know i have that guild fic to do but uhh,,,,, i got sidetracked.  
> this fic is currently about one fourth done and completely outlined, so i will do my best to have updates once a week!  
> aside from all that you can find me on tumblr at @cujowrites and my ko-fi is linked there!

The first thing Atsushi thinks when he opens his eyes is that he’s hungry.

The second is that he’s not actually in his bedroom, thought just before the memory of the Aurora crashing makes him sit up straight. His abrupt motion causes the small lifepod to rock slightly, and Atsushi doesn’t need to be a genius to figure out he must be on top of an ocean right now. 

He feels his chest tighten. His head begins to hurt. There’s nothing he can do other than curl up into himself and clutch at his head. This can’t be happening. This can’t be real. He’ll wake up and he’ll be surrounded by his friends, back on the Aurora. Or he’ll be back at home.

It feels like he stays that way for a few minutes, but his Alterra-issued PDA alerts him that he should seek food and fluid intake. Begrudgingly, he stands up and opens the compartment on the inside of the pod that’s helpfully labelled “EMERGENCY SUPPLIES”. He’s tempted to break down at the contents.

12 bottles of water. 5 nutrient blocks. A first aid kit. A knife. That’s maybe enough to survive five days, if he eats one nutrient block a day. Just looking at these, he almost starts to cry, but he’s pulled out from his own head by a loud beeping noise.

The radio’s light on the wall is flashing red. Atsushi stares at it, the gears in his head turning, until he finally realizes that this must be another survivor looking for help! Of course someone would try and send out a signal for other passengers! Hurriedly, he clicks the button on the radio that he assumes is meant to play the messages.

_ “This is lifepod one. My name is Kunikida Doppo, head of planning interplanetary expeditions for the Aurora. Judging from the view outside of my lifepod, I’ve landed not too far from the crash site. I will be attempting to move farther from the-” _ Kunikida pauses. Faintly, Atsushi can hear a very loud noise distorted by the recording.

_ “I will be attempting to relocate myself farther from the crash site, so as to not be affected by any radiation it might begin to affect me with. If-” _ The same roar can be heard again, but much louder. Atsushi can’t help but cringe.  _ “If anyone is alive and would like to head to my site, I’ve attached my coordinates. They should play after the message ends. In the meantime-” _

Kunikida screams. There’s a loud roar and the sound of metal crunching before the message cuts to static and the coordinates begin to play. Atsushi props one hand against the cold wall of the lifepod and uses the other to cover his face.

There’s nobody here to see him cry. There’s nobody here to see him.

He knew Kunikida. He’d gotten basic survival training from the man. Kunikida had been strict but well-meaning, and Atsushi hadn’t liked his schedules. If there were anyone who could have helped him..

Without anyone trustworthy to help him out, what is he supposed to do now?

He deliberates this for a few minutes--or maybe longer, because he’s not sure how long he actually stands there before he’s able to make a decision. He’ll open the top escape hatch--because the bottom one just leads to the ocean, and he’s not wearing a diving suit.

He struggles a little to push it open from below, but once he has it open it’s pretty easy to pull himself on top of the life pod. If there were anyone watching him, he’d probably look really awkward, on his hands and knees on top of a tiny lifepod. It’s definitely not made to have someone standing on top of it, but he can work with this. In one direction is the crash site--and, Atsushi thinks grimly, Kunikida’s life pod. There are two other directions that seem to contain small islands, but he can barely see far enough to tell. Aside from that stuff, it really is just ocean everywhere.

Great.

Dismayed by that revelation, he heads back inside the life pod, sitting on the floor and resting against the wall. Despite having done underwater survival training as part of his mandated Alterra education, he’s not really the best at swimming. He glances towards the diving suit strewn across the floor--which had definitely been folded neatly somewhere in the pod at one point--and sighs.

Later on, after he’s finished a water bottle and two thirds of a nutrient block, he records his own distress message.

“U-um, this is lifepod eighteen. My name is Atsushi Nakajima, and from what I can tell, I’m safe from whatever attacked lifepod one. I’m not really the most desperately in need of help, but.. Well, if there’s anyone out there, I’m sending my coordinates anyway. We have a better chance of getting out of this if we work together, right?”

He pushes the button to transmit.

Honestly, he doesn’t know if anyone is going to get the message, or if they’ll be interested in helping him out. Hopefully it’s someone that would know what to do, like Dazai. Or maybe even Oda (though Atsushi has really only seen him when Dazai dragged him along to their division of the ship).

His radio beeps again. His head snaps to attention, because it could definitely be a response to his message. Without thinking, he presses the button.

His radio notifies him that this message was recorded and transmitted around an hour ago, and his heart sinks.

_ “Hey!” _ comes the loud and demanding voice of the division’s self-proclaimed best employee Edogawa Ranpo.  _ “Whoever’s out there listening, you better come and rescue me! Sea creatures are even more stupid than all of you, so I can’t talk them in circles and distract them, so someone come kill them for me!” _

Ranpo goes unusually quiet, which scares Atsushi.

_ “The director left a couple hours ago.. and he didn’t come back. He said he was gonna look for something to eat, ’cause obviously we can’t live on those gross nutrient blocks. He doesn’t seem like it, but he’s really hard to kill, you know? So I don’t think I’ll be able to make it alone if even he’s--.. Anyway, just come get me! I’m waiting!!” _ _ _

__

__

__ Frantically, Atsushi fiddles with the radio in hopes that it’ll give him the coordinates, but all it does is inform him that lifepod three’s initial signal died about thirty minutes after the message was sent. He stares numbly at the radio.

If he’s honest with himself, he hadn’t even liked Ranpo that much. Sure, the man was always the top employee and he was the favorite among others, even Kunikida and the director, but he was always really full of himself and liked to boss Atsushi around since he was new. But he’d have never wished death on Ranpo.

And if the director’s dead, it’s really bad news. Atsushi hadn’t known the man very well--in fact, he’d pretty much only seen him during his job interview and important events--but if he knew anything it was that the director could put up a major fight. What does that mean for him, with how weak he is?

He takes a bite of his last third of the first nutrient block. Even the food fits the depressing atmosphere. Then, once he’s finished eating, he sits there and holds his legs close to his body for what seems like hours until he slowly drifts off to sleep.


	2. an unfortunate rival's arrival

Atsushi wakes with a scream to the loud sound of banging on the outside of his escape pod, which is not a very good way to wake up. At least the banging stops when he screams, though, but he’s not sure he likes what comes next.

“Nakajima Atsushi,” hisses a voice that even through the wall of the escape pod sounds like it’s filled with disdain and hatred. Dread sinks into his body; he knows that voice, he’s sure of it. “I’m coming in,” directly follows the call. Atsushi doesn’t find his words quick enough to protest before his bottom escape hatch is opening and a man in a red and black diving suit with the word “RASHOMON” printed near his left shoulder.

He takes off his helmet once he’s fully inside, but Atsushi barely needed to see him to recognize him as Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, a part of the expedition team (which had been the reason the Aurora had entered this planet’s orbit in the first place). 

“You look pathetic,” Akutagawa spits, rather than greeting him.

“I just survived a ship crash!” Atsushi counters.

“So did I. Yet, only one of us is being productive.”

“You’ve been training to explore this planet! I was supposed to stay in space!”

“Tch. How predictable of the simple-minded; they find themselves unable to improvise in even the simplest of situations.” Akutagawa punctuates his sentence with several coughs in a row, and Atsushi’s brows furrow.

“Are you sick?” he asks, resulting in a glare from Akutagawa and no answer. He’ll take that look as a signal to drop it. “Right. Um. Do you know if there’s anyone else..”

Atsushi trails off, because he doesn’t want to bring up the deaths he’d all but witnessed yesterday, but Akutagawa’s expression turns grim. “Half of the expedition team is dead for certain. I don’t know if the other two even made it to a lifepod.”

“Oh,” Atsushi responds, intelligently. Akutagawa scoffs, and opens his mouth to say something when the radio begins beeping to signal another message. Atsushi is afraid to open it, so he hesitates, but Akutagawa is not and presses the button to hear the message.

_“Atsushi. Akutagawa.”_ The voice of Dazai Osamu seems to make the air still, even through a recording. Atsushi glances nervously at Akutagawa, whose eyes are blown wide. He wonders if the same thoughts are going through the expedition member’s head that are running through his own--if they’re hearing Dazai’s voice, then he’s most likely already gone. _“If anyone survives, it’ll be you two. I’ve been sinking for such a long time, I’d never be able to make it to the surface even if I did manage to get out of the pod, haha!”_  
Though his tone had turned a little humorous, it quickly reverts back to the serious tone that Atsushi has rarely heard Dazai use. _“This isn’t really the way I wanted to die at all, but it’s the way I’m going to. Listen to me, because I’m going to tell you something a friend of mine once told me.”_

It’s silent, save for the waves crashing up against the pod.

_ “Live.” _

Atsushi sits there, taking in what Dazai said. Akutagawa keeps looking at the radio like it’s going to turn itself back on and reveal there’s more that Dazai has said or that there’s any evidence he’s still alive. At least, that’s why Atsushi thinks he’s looking at the radio.

The long silence is broken at last by a cough coming from Akutagawa. It sounds like he’d desperately been trying to force it down. Taking a chance, Atsushi asks, “Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine!” Akutagawa snaps. It’s the first time he’s said anything louder than his normal hushed volume since entering the pod, and he coughs more after it, suggesting to Atsushi that he may have been strained just to talk loudly.

“You don’t sound fine!” Atsushi counters.

“Why is it your business how I sound?”

“Well excuse me for being concerned about the only other living person here!!”

Akutagawa scowls, but doesn’t reply immediately. “If you’re so insistent on knowing, I have a lung condition. The coughing is normal; I’m perfectly fine.”

Atsushi’s brows furrow. “If it’s something like that, why would they let you go on an expedition that would require a lot of exercise?”

“My suit is specially designed,” Akutagawa explains, “to support me with my condition. It makes swimming slightly easier on me so I exert less energy and therefore won’t spend my time breathing heavily.”

That.. makes a lot of sense, actually. It would definitely explain why Akutagawa’s diving suit looks a lot different than the one in Atsushi’s escape pod. His mind on the subject, he glances over to said suit. “Um..”

Akutagawa shoots him a look, but says nothing.”

“Well, I should probably, uh. Put this diving suit on. So can you maybe get out for a second..?” He reaches over to grab the suit with very ginger movements. Akutagawa scoffs. Again. Irritated, Atsushi asks, “What?”

“I’ll just turn around. Leaving the pod would be troublesome; I’m still not sure if there’s anything in the immediate vicinity that will attack on sight.” Akutagawa folds his arms and turns around like he’s a petulant child. Distantly, Atsushi thinks that’s a very on-the-nose comparison.

A few minutes of embarrassment later, Atsushi mumbles, “You can turn back now.”

Akutagawa looks over his shoulder before turning around fully, and Atsushi can’t help but be insulted by the idea that Akutagawa didn’t trust him to not be lying. Akutagawa looks him up and down before his nose scrunches up and there’s an expression Atsushi can’t quite place, but it makes him feel kind of out of place.

“--So what did you see out there? While you were on the way here, I mean.” At least that pulls the weird expression off Akutagawa’s face.

“Not much. You weren’t very far away.” He pauses and gets a distant look in his eyes, so Atsushi assumes he’s thinking. “The water isn’t very deep, at least not right here. Nothing that I swam past tried to attack me, and my PDA was able to discern that many of the smaller fish in our area are edible. There’s one species that I was able to fabricate freshwater from.”

Atsushi’s eyes light up. “That’s great news! We won’t have to live off those gross nutrient blocks!!”

“Tch. Of course someone like you would be worried about food.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t think anybody would want to eat nutrient blocks for the rest of their life! You can’t tell me you’re okay with that.”

“I only eat to satisfy hunger,” Akutagawa answers, deadpan, and Atsushi groans helplessly.

“You could at least be eating something good!”

“We’re wasting time by arguing,” Akutagawa snaps, and Atsushi barely holds back from pointing out that they clearly have all the time in the world, being stranded on an alien planet with no way off. But he doesn’t continue to argue because that’d be pointless, and he actually would rather get on with things. 

So instead of acting all bothered, he glances down at the bottom hatch. “So, uh. It really is safe out there?”

Akutagawa rolls his eyes. “From what I can see, it’s safe.”

Atsushi squints, because he’s not sure Akutagawa isn’t lying to see him get eaten by something huge. He doesn’t have much choice but to trust that the raven-haired man is telling the truth, though.

He opens the hatch and plunges into the water below.

_ Holy crap, it’s cold! It’s really cold! _

It’s not like he was expecting it to be warm or anything, but it’s even cold with the diving suit! This is nothing compared to the pools they had him do his brief survival training in!

He can’t help but curl up and shiver a little, until he realizes he probably looks like an idiot, at which point he surfaces for air. He should really be able to hold his breath for longer. He doesn’t go back underwater, instead clinging to the rungs of the ladder on the side of his lifepod. His PDA helpfully alerts him that he can gather local resources to fabricate food, water, and other necessary supplies such as an oxygen tank. 

He hears Akutagawa plunge into the water, so he finally ducks his head down below and makes sure to open his eyes this time. He expects it to sting, but.. It doesn’t actually hurt like an ocean on earth would, and he wonders just what this ocean is made of that opening his eyes doesn’t burn.

Akutagawa still looks massively annoyed underwater. Atsushi opns his mouth to ask him about getting the materials for an air tank and almost promptly remembers he’s underwater and can’t speak or breathe. Before Atsushi surfaces, he swears he sees Akutagawa scoff underwater, which he hadn’t even known was possible .

He goes under again after catching his breath and finally takes a chance at swimming down closer to the ocean floor. He sees a weird stitcky-outy piece of rock that stands out against the rocky floor, and his PDA supplies that limestone and sandstone outcrops such as that sometimes contain useful materials. With a little difficulty, he’s able to dislodge it from the rock it’s attached to and proudly show it to Akutagawa.

Akutagawa acts like he disapproves, but when Atsushi turns around next he can see Akutagawa with a similar outcrop in his hands, so he calls this one a victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha, this fic definitely picks up more in the later chapters, so sorry if it seems really slow right now!  
> as always comments fuel me and i love hearing what you think of my writing/portrayals


	3. and only now does the story begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> imagine only ever getting motivation to continue this story at actually midnight

**INCOMING RADIO TRANSMISSION.**

Atsushi scrambles up through the pod just in time to hear the message start. Akutagawa only has time to poke his head in before it starts playing.

_“Aurora, do you read me? This is Fukuchi Ochi, of Alterra Corp’s galactic enforcement. We recieved your distress call, but it’ll take us some time to reach your position! Haha, it’s unfortunate that the closest available rescue vehicle is just over a week away!”_ _  
_ Atsushi could really, actually cry. People are coming to rescue them! They’ll only have to survive here for another week!

There’s another voice, which sounds a little further from the microphone.

_ “They might be fine. They haven’t responded that they still need assistance--how annoying. You’d think they’d at least let us know if they were fine. Come to think of it, wasn’t Tachihara on that ship?” _

Akutagawa’s eyes narrow as another voice speaks.

_ “Hello, Tachihara-san.” _

_ “He wouldn’t be listening to this, idiot!” _

A fourth person joins the mix. A girl, this time.

_ “You’re both idiots! The only person here who knows anything is our commander, so LET HIM DO HIS JOB!” _

The commander, the initial one who’d spoken, laughs.  _ “We’re coming regardless of whether or not you reply, just to be a little on the safe side! After all, it would be very bad for Alterra if everything the Aurora was carrying was lost!” _

Atsushi recalls hearing that a large portion of the ship was reserved for storage--apparently, over half the passengers were working on building a phasegate in more unexplored space.

Commander Fukuchi says one last,  _ “Stay vigilant, Aurora! We’re on our way!” _ before the transmission ends. Atsushi hasn’t stopped grinning since he heard the news that rescue would be on its way soon. Feeling overwhelming relief, he lets a laugh escape him. A quick glance over at Akutagawa shows him that his emotionally constipated survival partner is not nearly as outwardly relieved as he is.

“Tachihara. He was supposed to join us on the planet, as a safety measure. Alterra didn’t want us to be breaking their code while we were on the planet.” From the way he’s talking alone, Atsushi can gather that he probably didn’t like Tachihara very much. “He was involved with my sister.”

“You have a sister?!” Atsushi asks, brows raising. He.. honestly hadn’t thought Akutagawa had any siblings. Much less that said sibling would have also been on the Aurora. 

“Akutagawa Gin. She was the final member of the expedition.” 

Oh.

She’d been the final member to join the group of four that was going to explore the planet.

It’s just funny, because Atsushi had tried desperately to be the chosen candidate for that mission--it would have paid really well in comparison to his current work--only to find out he was the second choice among thousands of applicants.

So the first choice had been Akutagawa’s sister?

“You know, your sister really made me upset, at one point. I applied for the last position on the expedition crew, too, but she was accepted over me.” Atsushi’s smile returns a little. He hadn’t even realized his grinning from earlier had stopped. “I felt really bad for a while after that, because I thought to myself that even though I was their second choice out of a lot of people, I’d never be good enough for their mission.”

Akutagawa audibly scoffs (again). “She deserved it more than you.”

“Hey!!”

It’s been ten days since Atsushi woke up in the escape pod, and one since the message from the sunbeam, and Atsushi thinks they might finally be falling into a rhythm that’s almost comfortable.

Atsushi, with a seaglide and a high capacity oxygen tank, is in charge of catching and either curing or cooking fish with the fabricator (with the exception of the bladderfish, which are used for water). Akutagawa gathers all the materials he can find in limestone or sandstone outcrops, because it’s a lot less strenuous and Atsushi has been trying to work around his breathing problems for the time being.

But the problem is that Akutagawa wants to do more than stay in the shallows, and Atsushi really isn’t sure how he feels about that. For one, rescue is coming in a few days anyway, so there’s no point in exploring since they’ll be off the planet in no time. And, well.. Their PDAs aren’t really shy about reminding them that everything they collect and make is money they’ll have to give Alterra, and Atsushi is poor enough as it is. Making things like a mobile vehicle bay and a seamoth would be way too expensive, especially since they’re only going to be here for another six days!

“You’re being ridiculous,” Akutagawa tells him very bluntly in the mid-afternoon, when the day has just reached its hottest. The lifepod is really stuffy considering that both of them are in there, so they’ve opened the top hatch to let some air circulate. “If you’re so worried about costs, I’ll cover them. I have plenty of credits from my expedition work.”

Atsushi must hesitate for a little too long, because Akutagawa continues, “If you don’t want my help, you can go broke. I couldn’t care less what happens to you after we’re off this planet.”

_ Ouch. _

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t take help! I just--are you sure? Even with just what we’ve made now, that’s probably really costly..” Atsushi trails off.

“It doesn’t matter. I have more than enough credits.”

“I get it, you’re rich!”

Six days, three messages from the sunbeam, and a battle won by Akutagawa later, the two of them head out in their new-ish seamoths to the landing coordinates provided by Commander Fukuchi. Akutagawa, given that he doesn’t have to strain his lungs to drive the seamoth, takes the lead. Atsushi is mostly grateful for that because it means that if there’s anything terrifying in the ocean, Akutagawa will definitely see it first.

Small victories, right?

The trip to the island is pretty uneventful, in all honesty. Well, aside from the fact that Atsushi swears he can hear something really loud through the water, albeit very distantly. He’d only mentioned this to Akutagawa the first time, because Akutagawa had very rudely dismissed him and told him he was just being paranoid.

The arrival at the island, however..

“What is  _ that? _ ” Atsushi asks, staring at the alien looking building that seems to dominate the part of the island that the coordinates lead them to. The idea that there might be aliens on this planet capable of building things like that is honestly really worrying, at least to Atsushi. Akutagawa just scoffs again.

“So. Uh,” Atsushi starts, mentally cursing himself for losing his words. “Maybe we should just leave this alone? The rescue ship is gonna be here in ten minutes or less, so there’s no point in trying to get inside and missing the ship.”

Akutagawa glances at him, expression as blank as ever. “I didn’t know you were capable of experiencing rational thought.”

“When have I ever done anything that was irrational??” Atsushi asks desperately, his eyes still on the big alien building that he’s honestly relieved Akutagawa isn’t going to make him explore the place. Since his eyes are still on the building, though, he walks straight into a waist high pillar. “Ow! Okay, I’ve done a few irrational things, but mostly when I have ideas they’re pretty rational!”  
Akutagawa huffs and keeps walking until he’s standing a good distance away from the exact coordinates. The timer set on Atsushi’s PDA reads about 9 minutes, and he can’t help but think that something might go wrong here. The Aurora, a very structurally sound ship according to the people he’d talked about it with, had crashed on this planet with no explanation when the stop by all means should have been smooth. 

And now, discovering a giant alien base not too far from where the ship is supposed to land.. Well, it doesn’t sit right with Atsushi. There are so many ways this could go wrong. What happens if the ship doesn’t come? What are they supposed to do if they can never get in contact with Alterra again?

“Stop thinking. It’s annoying.” Akutagawa breaks the silence, a glare fixed on Atsushi. He’s kind of mad at Akutagawa for being an asshole, but it did happen to get him out of his thoughts..

“Sorry, I was just a little worried, I guess.” His PDA beeps, signaling one minute until the ship enters the atmosphere. Had he really been imagining possible ways for this to go wrong for eight minutes? No wonder Akutagawa had gotten annoyed. “They’ll be here anytime now.”

Akutagawa nods. “Let’s hope they aren’t late.”

Atsushi keeps his eyes towards the sky until his and Akutagawa’s PDAs seem to simultaneously catch the ship’s transmission.

_ “--wouldn’t be able to see them from here, of course. Yes, we’re entering the atmosphere now. Do you think they can hear us yet, Jono-kun? Hello, survivors, we’ve come to bring you back to safety!” _

A loud noise interrupts Commander Fukuchi’s voice. There’s an awful feeling that grows in Atsushi’s stomach as he realizes that the tall, machine-like part of the alien facility is moving. He looks back up at the sky, where the ship is barely a speck in the distance. Then back at the building, which almost seems to be aiming at the ship like..

“It’s a gun..” Atsushi murmurs to himself, fixated on both the ship and the massive alien weapon. “Akutagawa, it’s going to shoot them down!!” He shoots a panicked look at the raven-haired diver only to discover an expression of what he thinks is dread and terror.

_ “Commander, I’m detecting a massive energy signature from the island.”  _ The ship is closer now, almost close enough that he can hear the noise of its engines.

_ “Don’t be ridiculous, Jono-kun. It’s an uninhabited ocean planet, what could possibly--” _

A bright green light shoots from the end of the gun, directly at the ship. Atsushi watches in horror as the ship sent to rescue them is blown to bits.


	4. a problem with no immediate solution

Atsushi sinks to his knees, eyes still trained on the gun. It’s returned to its original position since shooting down Commander Fukuchi’s ship, as if nothing even happened. The last little bits of the ship that had exploded are falling down towards the water, on fire, and after they do the sky is completely clear.

It’s a perfect day outside. The fact makes Atsushi laugh, because whenever movies show a terrible scene it’s always during darkness or rain. Akutagawa must think he’s crazy.

“That was our only chance of getting off this planet,” Atsushi states weakly, because he still can’t fully believe what he just saw. Their only hope for rescue was just blown to bits by an alien superweapon. He turns to look at Akutagawa, to ask what they’re supposed to do now, only to find that the other man’s eyes are still locked onto the sky.

“Akutagawa,” Atsushi tries, knowing that if he doesn’t try to get through to Akutagawa that he’ll just end up breaking down, and that’ll just be worse for both of them. Akutagawa doesn’t respond. “Akutagawa!” he tries again.

“Shut up.”

“Oh, so now you’re going to sit there and wallow in it? What happened to getting mad at me for doing that?” Atsushi puts a firm hand on Akutagawa’s shoulder, but the man immediately slaps it off.

“Shut up!”

“No!”

Atsushi stares at Akutagawa, who looks him in the eye like he can’t decide if he wants to murder him or mortally wound him. Though this situation is less than comfortable, Atsushi doesn’t back down. “You called me stupid for sitting in my lifepod and doing nothing, so why should I let you just stand there while we could be doing something?”  
“What would be the point?” Akutagawa’s eyes narrow. “Even before the initial message from Commander Fukuchi, the chance of rescue was highly likely. The Aurora was a large vessel--suddenly losing contact with it would be cause for concern. Even now, with more Alterra employees having lost contact with them, a rescue ship is likely to come. But you and I both saw what just happened to the first rescue ship that came. It’s highly likely this is the reason the Aurora crashed, too. If this weapon could bring down such a large ship, there’s nothing Alterra has made that would stand a chance.”

“Then we’ll just disable the gun!” Atsushi blurts, before he can think about it. He sends a hurried glance to the part of the structure that looks like it’s not part of a gun. “There has to be an entrance.. right? Maybe there’s nothing in there, and the gun just shoots things that enter the atmosphere on its own?”

Akutagawa doesn’t say anything. Atsushi hopes that means he’s considering it. “We could split up? See if there’s anything that might help us get in! I mean, even if we try and fail, we’re not gonna make anything worse, right?”

“You have no way of knowing that,” Akutagawa counters, folding his arms, “but fine. We’ll look for a way in.”

Much to Atsushi’s chagrin, they end up splitting up. He hadn’t wanted to, because there could definitely be some kind of hostile plant, or something, but Akutagawa’s argument that they’d cover more ground that way had made sense, and he hadn’t wanted to argue more than they’d already been arguing.

So he’s trudging through the sand on the opposite side of the building as Akutagawa when he notices there’s something glowing, half-buried in the sand. At first, Atsushi thinks it might just be a weirdly shaped alien rock, but then he feels the urge to slap himself in the face because it’s definitely something other than an ordinary rock. From what he can tell upon closer inspection it’s definitely rectangular, and looks like something that was made manually rather than something that was formed naturally. The most standout thing about it is the weird, glowing purple symbol right in the middle.

He doesn’t pick it up right away, instead opting to gingerly brush the sand off of it first, because it could be dangerous. But, after it doesn’t hurt him to lightly touch it with his fingertips, he grabs hold of the object from either side and--

“I found an entrance.”

He screams and drops the object, jumping what must be a foot in the air. Even after he realizes it’s just Akutagawa, it takes a good few seconds for his breathing to slow down. Akutagawa huffs. Atsushi thinks he should start keeping count of how many times he’s done that. A bit ashamed that he’d gotten so afraid, Atsushi moves to pick up the tablet looking thing he’d just dropped.

“I, uh.. found this?” He holds it up for Akutagawa to see. Said man’s eyes narrow, and if Atsushi didn’t know better he’d think Akutagawa might be trying to decimate it with a glare. But after so much time around him, Atsushi has picked up that Akutagawa is really just that bad with facial expressions.

“This is a key,” Akutagawa states plainly.

“What? How do you know?”  
“By the entrance--which was sealed off with some sort of forcefield, as I’d planned to tell you--there was a pillar. On the top of it was a symbol like that, in the same color,” Akutagawa explains. “Give me that.”

And of course he turns out to be right, because--well, it had made sense, but Atsushi can’t help feeling bitter because it just seems like Akutagawa’s always right. The tablet key thing does get them into the building, and they don’t split up this time. (“There could be aliens in here! You saw what the gun did to that ship!” Atsushi had protested, and Akutagawa had looked very pained to agree with him.)

Just when Atsushi is beginning to think there isn’t anything of note in the building after all save for a weird green thing his PDA calls an ion crystal and another purple tablet key, they reach a sealed off door. In sync, their PDAs inform them that scans show the area beyond the door to be some kind of control room. Atsushi, much to his delight, is the one to put the key in the pillar this time.

They walk in as the forcefield dissipates, Atsushi slightly in front of Akutagawa. Content wise, this room doesn’t really look like anything special save for something against the very back wall. Curious, Atsushi walks a little faster to get there, momentarily forgetting that Akutagawa is right behind him.

Upon further inspection, this thing looks like it’s giving power to whatever’s above it, and Atsushi has a hunch that that might just be the gun. There’s a button on it, too, and he reaches to press it before he can even think about it.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Akutagawa asks (well, more like yells), but by then it’s too late and Atsushi has already pressed the button down. Nothing happens, so Atsushi fixes Akutagawa with a very flat glare and releases the button. 

Almost immediately, some weird device pops up and traps his wrist in place. Startled, he yelps, and makes several attempts to pull his wrist out of the stasis it’s been put in before he notices movement. A short metal arm with a circular bit at the top has emerged from just above the button and Atsushi regards it curiously. It looks like it might be scanning his arm--there’s a hole in the middle that he thinks could definitely be a scanner of some kind.

But he’s evidently totally wrong; a needle pops out from the hole, and Atsushi barely has time to react before it plunges into his arm, causing him to let out a scream of pain. Then it retracts itself just as soon as it had stabbed him, and his wrist is let out of the strange stasis. Immediately, he covers the part of his arm that had just been stabbed, almost missing the alien language that comes out of the machine.

Akutagawa mutters something under his breath, and Atsushi is pretty sure he’s being called stupid. He would have replied if not for their PDAs suddenly speaking up.

(Translating alien broadcast:  **WARNING. INFECTED INDIVIDUALS MAY NOT DEACTIVATE THE WEAPON.** )

So they self-scan, and they leave the control room with the information that there is a way to deactivate the weapon, but that neither of them can do it, because they’re apparently affected with an alien bacterium. Which is less than ideal. In fact, it’s the total opposite of ideal. 

Despite himself, Atsushi is worried for Akutagawa. Now that he thinks back on it, Akutagawa had been tiring out pretty easy, but he’d chalked it up to the lung condition he’d been told about when Akutagawa had first come to his lifepod. If there really is some sort of alien disease, wouldn’t Akutagawa be more susceptible, since he already has a condition that impedes his ability to function as well as someone else would be able to?

He’s sure Akutagawa is somehow reading his thoughts, because he says, “Stop thinking I’m weak enough to be held back by something so trivial as a disease.”

“I wasn’t thinking that!” Atsushi protests.

“You were staring at me.”

“I could have been staring at anything!”

“I’ve already had enough excuses from you,” Akutagawa spits, looking away. “I’m not so weak that I’d be hindered by bacteria from another planet.”

“I didn’t think you were,” Atsushi mumbles under his breath, but he doesn’t argue further. “But this is good, right? At least we know there’s a way to turn the gun off! All we have to do is find a cure!”

Akutagawa looks at him like he’s crazy. “Do you think that will be easy?”

Atsushi shrinks into himself a little and averts his eyes. “Well.. No. But now that we know there’s a way to safely get a rescue ship down here, shouldn’t we try for that?”

“I’m surprised you aren’t worried about using too much of Alterra’s money,” Akutagawa quips.

“I still don’t like the fact that we already owe them so much, but.. I’d rather live in debt than die, wouldn’t you? I really, really don’t want to die here. So we should do whatever it takes, no matter how many credits Alterra is going to charge us for it!”

When Atsushi chances a look at Akutagawa, the expeditionist is looking at him with that weird expression from before. Then he closes his eyes and Atsushi is startled to hear a soft laugh from him.

“Maybe you are capable of rational thought after all.”

“Hey!”

* * *

**INCOMING RADIO TRANSMISSION.**

_ “Aurora? This is Tayama Katai, from Alterra headquarters. We aren’t able to send a rescue team that far out--and, uh, Alcott doesn’t think anything we could assemble quickly would be able to salvage the ship, anyway. But for anyone listening, preferably the captain, I’ve sent you the blueprints for a small rocket. They’ll be found in the captain’s quarters. It should be able to carry a few people off the planet, but you’re going to need to utilize resources from the planet you landed on. Uh.. And, I’m supposed to be straight to the point here, but I want you to know I’m sorry. If any of you are, uh, dead. Just.. We’ll be able to meet you halfway once you’re off the planet.” _

_ “Are you done, old sport? I’ve something I need you to work on.” _

_ “Uh. Yeah. Sorry. I’ll get right to it..?” _

**TRANSMISSION ENDED.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, catch me updating this in the middle of the night again!  
> i'll be honest, i'm.. not super happy with the quality of this fic; i suck with pacing and multichapter things in general. but i wanna stick it out because i've gotten some really nice comments about this work!  
> also say hello to fitzgerald's uncredited cameo.  
> unrelated--and we'll see if i can manage to keep this going til the very end--but i also have a steincraft spinoff fic that i could write if anyone is interested!


	5. the (almost) jaws of death

**WARNING.** The word echoes through their makeshift base, and Atsushi is yanked from sleep by it. He fumbles to find his PDA so he can see what’s going on without having to go all the way to the radio. His sleep-addled mind slows him down a little, but he’s able to pull up the flashing red indicator on the screen.

**_WARNING._ ** _ Levels of radiation from the Aurora approaching critical state. Evidence suggests fixing the drive core will cause the radiation to subside. Raditation could potentially have catastrophic effects on the local environment if not contained. _

Atsushi jolts up from his half-lying position and essentially falls out of bed trying to get up.

“Akutagawa!” he yells, hoping the other man is awake already, hoping he’s still in the sea base. He pushes himself off the floor, gets himself oriented, and--

“You’re annoyingly loud,” Akutagawa spits, standing in the doorway. Atsushi feels his face heat up. How long had he been standing there? There’s no way he could have gotten there in the time between Atsushi calling his name and now. “And a heavy sleeper.”

Atsushi’s brows furrow. “I’m not that loud! I just.. didn’t know you were right there.”

“Loud  _ and _ unobservant.”

Atsushi rolls his eyes.

* * *

Making radiation suits is not a problem; lead, as they’ve already discovered, is plentiful in this ocean of resources. The problem comes when they near the crash site.

Atsushi hears it first, because he’d taken the lead. His mind takes him back to the first time they’d gone to the island with the alien gun on it--it’s the same sound from then, a deep and guttural roar. But louder, closer than last time. Atsushi’s hands waver on the joystick steering mechanisms of the seamoth. Akutagawa had to have heard it this time.

“That was what I heard. Before. On the way to the island.”

Through the seamoth communication systems, Atsushi hears Akutagawa sigh. “Whatever it is, it isn’t near us. We should be able to safely approach the Aurora.”

And, because he doesn’t want to look silly or paranoid, Atsushi keeps heading straight on their set course towards the irradiated ship. Akutagawa won’t notice if he’s a little jittery, after all. He jumps at every movement he sees as the seamoth goes forward. Every little noise from the ocean has him on high alert, but nothing..

There it is again.

It’s a lot louder than before.

“Akutagawa--”

“Whatever it is won’t be able to make it inside the Aurora!”

Were it not for his time spent here with the man, he might think Akutagawa was angry. But Atsushi knows--or thinks he does--that Akutagawa is just as afraid as he is. “That won’t help us if we die before we get there!”

“If we don’t get there, we’ll die anyway. The radiation poisoning will get to us and the rest of the live in the surrounding ocean. We don’t have a choice.”

And it’s true, they don’t, but Atsushi doesn’t like the pictures his mind supplies of just what could be so loud underwater. Whatever that thing is, it must be big. Atsushi’s eyes linger on the vast space of empty water around the crash site before he drives his seamoth forward again.

Because they’re lucky (he’s using that word, lucky, very loosely, since their situation as a whole really isn’t the luckiest), the two of them manage to reach the Aurora in one piece, without even seeing the creature making those terrifying noises. The fact that they’re safe-ish inside the ship gives Atsushi a huge sense of relief. 

Altogether, they might have been a little too stressed about the levels of radiation, since the drive core had been easy to fix with the repair tool. The trip in itself had proven to be useful, though, yielding an abundance of fresh water, nutrient blocks, and med kids. Not to mention that Atsushi had gone out of his way to scan fragments of a prawn suit while they were in the Aurora’s prawn suit bay.

And they’d found the blueprints for the rocket, too, in the captain’s quarters. Neither of them had known the code, so Akutagawa had used his laser cutter to open the door because he’d gotten impatient in looking for it.

So Atsushi is in relatively high spirits when they leave. Things have been going well, and they’re on their way to sort-of making it somewhere, since the prawn suits will allow them to go deeper. But there’s something that nags at the back of his mind as he gets into his seamoth, parked just off the small sandbar near the Aurora. He just can’t remember what it was.

“Akutagawa, is there something we forgot--”

He stops talking. His eyes widen.

Atsushi had barely seen it before it disappeared behind the ship, but it had been huge. A long white body, with accents of red. He clenches his hand over the joysticks, but remains frozen in place. That’s what he’d forgotten. “Did you see that?”

“..Yes.” Akutagawa sounds troubled.

Before Atsushi can find his common sense and high-tail it away, the creature roars again, and swims back around the ship. Its head is visible this time, and for some reason Atsushi can’t stop staring. It has four clawlike appendages, wider than its body, and a mouth in the middle of them. It’s the most terrifying thing he’s ever seen, but he can’t look away. There’s no way they can outrun this. It definitely knows they’re there, now; it opens its mouth and lets out a roar and this one is louder than any of the rest. Atsushi can feel the vibration even through his seamoth.

“Atsushi! GO!” Akutagawa yells, and that’s what it takes to snap him out of it, make him turn around and send his seamoth away as fast as it will go. Akutagawa has already started moving. Atsushi can hear the thing behind him, not roaring, just swimming. They’re not faster than it.

There’s a jolt, a large pressure on the seamoth, and it takes Atsushi a moment before he realizes that the creature had grabbed the seamoth with its bony arm things.

“ATSUSHI!” Akutagawa screams, though the communications are failing because the seamoth is being crushed. His voice is static. Everything is flashing red. In a panic, Atsushi pushes the button to eject himself.

The creature doesn’t notice. It keeps crushing the seamoth.

Atsushi stares for a moment before activating his seaglide and swimming away as fast has he can, following Akutagawa’s seamoth, which for some reason had been stopped when Atsushi first ejected.

It takes a while before Atsushi stops hearing the sounds of his vehicle being destroyed, and even longer before he even feels safe. But after an eternity of uncertainty, they’ve made it back to their base. Atsushi is the first inside; Akutagawa parks his seamoth close to the base.

“You could have died!” Akutagawa yells, as soon as he gets inside. “What the hell were you doing, just sitting there? That thing was more than capable of ending your life!”  
Atsushi doesn’t even have it in him to argue. “I- I know. I don’t know what I was thinking, I just.. I wasn’t. Thinking.”

“That much is obvious.” The expeditionist is positively seething. “Next time you find yourself facing something much stronger and larger than yourself, make the right choice and get out of there immediately.”

“I’m sorry!” Atsushi yells, just to get him to stop talking. He knows. He’d made a mistake, and he’s well aware. “I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear? I’ll stop making stupid choices! I’ll run next time! I’m surprised you don’t want me dead, since all you seem to do is complain about how stupid and annoying I am! I’m sure you’d be able to make so much progress on your own without this idiot holding you back! Wouldn’t you?!”

Atsushi doesn’t even know where that came from. The silence between them is thick, and it makes him squirm in place. Akutagawa looks away.

“My intention was never to give you the impression I wanted you dead,” he says, as if it’s meant to be some kind of insult. Then, despite that they’d only just gotten back, he leaves the base entirely, giving Atsushi no chance to respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! so after a few months of not working on this fic i got the sudden inspiration to continue. this chapter and the next one were both pre-written, but chapter 7 was most certainly not and i'm excited to hopefully get there. here's to hoping i actually find it in myself to finish this fic!


End file.
